Saints interim head coach Darren Rizzi vows ‘change’ | Saints

Saints interim head coach Darren Rizzi vows ‘change’ | Saints
Saints interim head coach Darren Rizzi vows ‘change’ | Saints

Maybe Darren Rizzi always envisioned this day would come, but surely it didn’t look like this in his mind’s eye: Wearing a team-issued sweatshirt and a solemn face as he walked to a lectern to be introduced as the head coach in early November.

The New Saints announced Monday morning that they’d fired head coach Dennis Allen, and elevated Rizzi to the interim head coaching role in his place. Rizzi, now in his sixth season with the Saints, is getting his first opportunity to lead an NFL franchise as its head coach.

This was not a time to celebrate.

“A tough day for me, a tough day for this profession,” Rizzi said. “It kind of just gives you the reality of the situation. Dennis did a lot for this organization and I consider him a close personal friend, so it’s obviously a tough situation.

“As I told the team earlier today, we’ve all had a hand — me included — in where we are right now. We’re all going to have a hand in digging us out of this hole that we’re in.”

The task at hand for Rizzi and the Saints is to try and reverse what quickly became a lost season. He inherited a team that has lost seven consecutive games, the last one being a devastating loss to the previously 1-7 Carolina Panthers that sealed Allen’s fate.

He is taking over with eight games remaining on the schedule, and his team has just six days between it and the next one — a home game against the rival Atlanta Falcons, no less. From the sound of his opening press conference, he does not intend to guide New Orleans into a nosedive that will improve its draft stock next season. He intends to win.

It’s a daunting task, but Rizzi said he’s up for the challenge. That means he will not be sticking to the script as it has been written to this stage of the season.

“Everybody and everything is going to be evaluated and reevaluated, because right now the product is not acceptable,” Rizzi said. “Everything down from the schedule to how we do things to the active players to the daily schedule; we’re going to look at everything.”

Rizzi’s only previous experience as a head coach came at New Haven and Rhode Island at the college level. But this is not the first time he’s been up for one of these jobs.

He spent the first 10 years of his NFL coaching career with the Miami Dolphins, and interviewed for the head coaching job when the team fired Adam Gase after the 2018 season. That job ultimately went to Brian Flores, who decided not to retain Rizzi on the staff.

Several NFL teams pursued Rizzi to be their special teams coordinator, but he wound up in New Orleans. Three years after he joined the Saints, Sean Payton stepped down, and Rizzi was one of the internal candidates considered for the job that ended up going to Dennis Allen.

Now, the opportunity has arrived — even if it didn’t come the way he was hoping for. Rizzi can’t even allow himself to think about this as an audition for when the Saints (and, eventually, other teams) look to hire a new head coach next offseason.

“I’m worried about tomorrow,” Rizzi said. “I’ve been fortunate that the organization is confident enough to put me up in front here, and I’m going to put my best foot forward.”

Whether Rizzi is the best man for next year and beyond is in many ways irrelevant at this point. What matters to the team, and specifically, to the players, is that he may be the best man for the moment.

As the special teams coordinator, Rizzi has spent the last six seasons building relationships with virtually every player on the roster because he has personally had to coach most of them. And, even the ones he hasn’t put on one of his special teams units, he’s made a point of getting to know them, too.

Take safety Tyrann Mathieu, for instance. Mathieu hasn’t played a single special teams snap since the 2018 season, when he was with the Houston Texans.

“I believe in Rizz,” Mathieu said. “I think Rizz is the type of coach and the type of leader and the type of man that really can command the room. I think he knows what buttons to push to motivate guys.

“He’s a straight shooter, and I think you need that sometimes. Guys need to be called out some times. Rizz is going to provide us that sense of reality.”

Or, take tight end Foster Moreau, who has played a limited role on special teams since he signed with the Saints last year.

“He is an unbelievable leader of men,” Moreau said of Rizzi. “… There is something about him and the way that he coaches, the way that he leads, the way that he demands execution from his players.”

Moreau closed his thoughts on Rizzi this way: “He has a pretty interesting opportunity.”

The 54-year-old from New Jersey does indeed have an intriguing chance. The odds are stacked against him, but that isn’t new.

“I grew up a little bit of a fighter, I’ve never really been handed anything,” Rizzi said. “I was a walk-on player in college, I was a free agent in the NFL, I started my coaching career in Division II. I’ve had to work for everything I’ve gotten. This is no different.

“I’m going to show up here every day of the week, work my a** off and try to change the product on the field.”

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